We've looked at a lot of text so far in this course, but the web would be really boring only using text. Let's start looking at how to make the Web come alive, with more interesting content! This module explores how to use HTML to include multimedia in your web pages, including the different ways that images can be included, and how to embed video, audio, and even entire webpages.

Prerequisites

Before starting this module, you should have a reasonable knowledge of the basics of HTML, as previously covered in Introduction to HTML. If you've not worked through this module (or something similar), work through it first, then come back!

Note: If you are working on a computer/tablet/other device where you don't have the ability to create your own files, you could try out (most of) the code examples in an online coding program such as JSBin or Thimble.

Guides

This module contains the following articles, which will take you through all the fundamentals of embedding multimedia on webpages.

There are other types of multimedia to consider, but it is logical to start with the humble <img> element, used to embed a simple image in a webpage. In this article we'll look at how to use it in more depth, including basics, annotating it with captions using <figure>, and how it relates to CSS background images.

Next, we'll look at how to use the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements, to embed video and audio on our pages; including basics, providing access to different file formats to different browsers, adding captions and subtitles, and how to add fallbacks for older browsers.

At this point we'd like to take somewhat of a sideways step, looking at a couple of elements that allow you to embed a wide variety of content types into your webpages: the <iframe>, <embed> and <object> elements. <iframe>s are for embedding other web pages, and the other two allow you to embed PDFs, SVG, and even Flash — a technology on its way out, but which you may still see semi-regularly.

Vector graphics can be very useful in certain situations. Unlike regular formats like PNG/JPG, they don't distort/pixelate when zoomed in — they can remain smooth when scaled. This article introduces you to what vector graphics are, and how to include the popular SVG format in web pages.

With so many different device types now able to browse the Web — from mobile phones to desktop computers — an essential concept to master in the modern web world is responsive design. This refers to the creation of webpages that can automatically change their features to suit different screen sizes, resolutions, etc. This will be looked at in much more detail in a CSS module later on, but for now we'll look at the tools HTML has available to create responsive images, including the <picture> element.

Assessments

The following assessments will test your understanding of the HTML basics covered in the guides above:

See also

Image maps provide a mechanism to make different parts of an image link to different places (think of a map, linking through to further information about each different country you click on.) This technique can sometimes be useful.

An excellent Mozilla foundation course that explores and tests some of the skills talked about in the Multimedia and embedding module. Dive deeper into the basics of composing webpages, designing for accessibility, sharing resources, using online media, and working open (meaning that your content is freely available, and shareable by others).